Pricing & Negotiating: International Luxury Hospitality Brand

By Bryan Sheffield, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Architectural images showcasing a hotel and its amenities.

Licensing: Unlimited use of up to 5 images in perpetuity. Unlimited use of up to 30 additional images for 1 year

Photographer: Architecture and Hospitality specialist

Client: Large International Hospitality Brand

Here is the estimate:

 

 

Fees: This shoot required an experienced architecture and hospitality specialist with the ability to capture strong content in a very short amount of time. The shoot time was compressed as the location was re-opening with short notice due to the state’s relaxation of Covid regulations. Also, from what we could gather in our client conversations, was that a shoot took place recently and the agency was now tasked with getting it done right the second time. That put upward pressure on the fee, and I felt that a creative fee alone was worth $10,000 for the 2-day shoot.

The client requested two licensing terms for the 35 deliverables on the shot list. They requested 30 images with 1-year Unlimited use, and an additional 5 images to have a license for unlimited use in perpetuity.

For the 1 year Unlimited licensing, I felt $750 per image was appropriate for the quantity of 30 images.

For the perpetual Unlimited licensing, I felt $2,000 per image was appropriate for 5 images.

This totaled $32,500, and I arrived at a $42,500 creative/licensing fee by combining the $10,000 creative fee with the licensing fees. On top of that, I added a $750 fee for the photographer to attend a quick tech/scout of the location.

I added a Licensing Options section within the Job Description to outline possible additional image use fees, including possibly extending the use of the 30 images to perpetual use. This included a discounted rate for the bulk perpetual use.

Crew: We added a first assistant (who would also accompany the photographer on the tech/scout), as well as a second assistant. These rates were appropriate for the given market, and the rates the photographer’s assistants were accustomed to. I suggested to the photographer to bring on a separate person as digital tech, but the client pushed back on the crew footprint during Covid and the photographer was comfortable using his 2nd assistant to simply run a Capture One tether and backup files.

Equipment: We included $2,000 for cameras/grip/lighting, and a modest fee to cover the photographer’s computer set up to be used on set, and 2 hard drives.

Covid Safety: We included costs for 3 advanced Covid tests for the photography team, plus $75 for PPE.

Misc.: The location was about a 30-minute drive for the photography team. We added a line item to cover individual mileage for the 3 person team, parking, some additional meals, and a bit of buffer for any small unforeseen expenses that might arise.

Post Production: We included $1,500 for the photographer to perform basic color correction and provide a gallery of his favorite shots. The retouching estimate was based upon the photographer and creative team assuming each image would need roughly 2 hours of work. This would be billed at $125 per hour.

Results: The photographer was awarded the project. The shoot was a success and images are out in the world currently!

Pricing & Negotiating: Industrial Images For Energy Company

By Craig Oppenheimer, Wonderful Machine< Concept: Images of employees at work in industrial settings

Licensing: Collateral and Publicity use of all images captured in perpetuity

Photographer: Industrial and Lifestyle Specialist

Client: Energy company

Here is the estimate:

 

 

Fees: The client had three facilities across the country, and while the scope included one shoot day at each facility, the overall production including travel time would equate to a 10-day project. There wasn’t a defined shot list, but we knew the shoot would involve a combination of employee lifestyle images, and shots of the equipment within each facility as well. Rather than basing the fee on a certain number of setups/scenarios, I used previous knowledge of similar shoots to come up with a fee of $6,000 per shoot day, which felt right for the limited usage.

Crew: The load would be light, and the photographer only needed a first assistant for the production.

Equipment: We included $1,000 per shoot day for use of the photographer’s personal cameras, lenses, and grip.

Travel: I included appropriate rates based on local research for the 10-day production details in the job description

Misc.: This covered any unforeseen expenses that might arise during the production and while traveling.

Post Production: We anticipated about 20 images per location needing some basic processing, and we noted $100 per image, which would include up to 1 hour of retouching.

Results: The photographer was awarded the project.

Pricing & Negotiating: Still Life Images For Pharmaceutical Client

By Craig Oppenheimer, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Still life images of a pharmaceutical product

Licensing: Unlimited use of all images captured for two years

Photographer: Portraiture specialist

Agency: Pharmaceutical marketing specialists

Client: Pharmaceutical company

Here is the estimate:

 

 

Fees: The project was fairly straightforward. The client needed images of a product on a white background, and images of hands holding the product. Right from the start, we were told that they have a budget of $15,000, so my goal was to account for all necessary expenses while making sure that the fee for the photographer was appropriate for the usage. While the licensing included unlimited use, we knew these images would likely be used primarily for collateral purposes, and they were willing to limit the duration to two years. For this project, I felt $5,500 was suitable for a creative/licensing fee.

Crew: I included a first assistant to help the photographer set up grip/lighting equipment, and a digital tech to help the client review the content as it was being captured both on-site and remotely over zoom.

Styling: I included a hair/makeup stylist to prep the talent on the shoot day, as well as a wardrobe stylist for three days to help source clothing for them. Since the scope was relatively simple, I did not include a styling assistant for either role, as I felt they could handle the responsibilities easily on their own.

Health and Safety: While not included in the bottom line, I noted what a covid compliance officer would cost, should the team require one on-site.

Casting and Talent: We planned to work with a local casting director to hire three models, and the agency planned to pay the talent directly.

Locations: We included one studio rental day.

Equipment: In addition to the photographer’s gear, we included an appropriate amount for a digital tech to rent us their workstation for the day.

Meals: We kept it pretty low-key on the meals to be able to adhere to the budget given, and accounted for ordering lunch from a local restaurant instead of having an elaborate catering setup.

Post Production: The agency planned to handle retouching, so all we needed to include was a hard drive to hand over the content at the end of the day.

Results: The photographer was awarded the project.


Need help estimating or producing a project? Please reach out.
We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs, from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.

Pricing & Negotiating: Lifestyle Images For A Pharmaceutical Client

by Craig Oppenheimer, Wonderful Machine

Licensing: Unlimited use of all images captured in North America for one year

Photographer: Lifestyle and portraiture specialist

Agency: Healthcare marketing specialists

Client: Pharmaceutical company

Here is the estimate:

 

Fees: At the onset of the project, the scope was based around 4 talent interacting and participating in lifestyle activities in and around a residential property. We anticipated three unique setups over the course of one day, however, we did not have a specific shot list to work with. While the agency requested unlimited use for one year, we knew the images would primarily be used for very targeted advertising, mostly web-based, and likely used within printed collateral pieces. Given the duration of just one year, I decided to price the three scenarios at $3,500 each, and I added a $2,000 creative fee. Based on previous experience, I knew the agency would be looking for a creative/licensing fee somewhere between 10-15k, and we were told the budget was initially tight, so we ultimately landed on $12,500. We included a tech/scout day at $1,000 for the photographer, and we included $750 for them to attend a wardrobe fitting day as well, which was specifically requested by the agency.

Crew: We knew this would likely require some heavy lifting and a lot of moving parts, so we included a producer along with a PA, as well as two assistants and a digital tech, at rates that were appropriate for the given market.

Styling: We included a hair/makeup stylist along with an assistant, and we combined the roles of the wardrobe and prop styling into one lead stylist with two assistants. At this point in the project, it seemed reasonable to combine these roles not only because the photographer had a stylist in mind that he was confident could handle it, but it was also a strategy to reduce the headcount on set, which is a covid compliance protocol we always try to implement. We made sure to include enough shopping time and extra days for attendance of a wardrobe fitting day prior to the shoot. We anticipate two outfits for each of the four talents and based the wardrobe costs on $300 per outfit. We included $4,000 for props but marked it as TBD since we didn’t have a clear sense as to what the exact needs would be at the onset of the project. Additionally, we included $750 for kit fees, shipping, and miscellaneous styling expenses.

Health and Safety: We included a covid compliance officer for both the shoot, tech/scout day and wardrobe fitting day. Additionally, we included one Covid test per attendee, as well as a few hundred dollars for PPE/supplies.

Locations: We had a general sense of the type of house that was needed, however, we also sensed that the client would be quite picky. We included what we felt was ample scouting days plus a location fee that would more than cover such a location in this market. We also included $500 as a location fee for the wardrobe fitting, as we’d need a location for that to take place.

Casting and Talent: I included $1,500 for casting, which was based on local knowledge of a casting agent who I knew would be able to cover our needs for that amount of money. Considering covid, rather than a live casting, they remotely collect virtual auditions that talent record themselves, with our casting director’s guidance. The agency planned to cover all talent fees, so we made sure to make a note of that.

Equipment: We made sure to include photographic equipment along with a workstation for our digital tech and production supplies. Throughout the pandemic, I’ve increased line items for production supplies considering the additional items needed to have a safe set (more tables/chairs to spread out, fans for airflow, etc.) in addition to normal items like tents and walkies.

Vehicles: While the house could possibly serve as a staging area, we included a production RV to help spread out and provide a dedicated styling area.

Catering: I included $70 per person for a light breakfast and lunch that would also conform to our covid protocols.

Misc.: I included $750 for insurance (however we did not know the policy limits at this point required by the agency), as well as added funds for miscellaneous expenses that might arise throughout the production.

Post Production: The agency planned to handle retouching, so this just included the photographer’s time to transfer the content to a hard drive and hand it over.

Results: The project was awarded to the photographer. During the pre-production process, a new concept came to light that would necessitate an additional day of shooting. We compiled another estimate to serve as an overage request that contained similar line items to the initial estimate but accounted for an additional day. The overage request for this new concept totaled approximately $60k, and that estimate was also approved.

Need help estimating or producing a project? Please reach out.
We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs, from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.

Pricing & Negotiating: Lifestyle Images For A Vacation Company

By  Craig Oppenheimer, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Images of people enjoying a luxury vacation

Licensing: Unlimited use of up to 30 images for two years

Photographer: Lifestyle and Portraiture Specialist

Client: Luxury vacation brand

Here is the estimate:

 

Fees: The client hoped to promote their brand and a new vacation they were offering with a lifestyle shoot featuring talent partaking in a luxury vacation over three shoot days. They would primarily use the 30 images requested for collateral purposes, with the slim chance of print ads in industry specific publications. I started with a creative fee of $2,000 per day for three shoot days, and added $300 per image on top of that to arrive at a creative/licensing fee of $15,000. While I wanted to go higher on the per image fee, I felt collectively we would probably be pushing the limits on a fee for this brand based on an initial call with the client. On that call, they also confirmed that they would be able to provide the locations, any necessary lodging, meals and prop styling.

Crew: We included a small crew consisting of a producer (including prep, shoot and wrap days) and two assistants for the shoot days. The client was comfortable without a dedicated digital tech.

Styling: In addition to a hair/makeup stylist, we include a wardrobe stylist and a wardrobe stylist assistant to shop and provide clothing for six talent. Each talent would have two outfits each, which we estimated at $250 per outfit. We also included a bit of padding for styling kit fees, and expenses incurred while shopping.

Casting and Talent: As a cost savings measure, we included a line item to cover casting from cards, rather than working with a casting agent and having a live casting. We included session fees to cover six talent for three days each, as well as modest talent usage fee, which we felt would work for the market and licensing needed.

Equipment: This covered the photographer’s own gear, and the potential need for a few rented lenses/supplies for three days.

Misc.: We included a few hundred dollars to cover any unforeseen expenses that might arise.

Post Production: This covered the time it would take the photographer to do an initial edit and then a per image fee for retouching of 30 selects.

Feedback: The estimate was well received, however we heard back a few days later letting us know that they determined their budget was $50k, and they asked what we could do to come down to that number. We discussed the production approach, and the client was comfortable taking on those responsibilities while reducing the talent needs as well. We removed the producer (while adding a pre-pro day for the photographer to help line up her crew), reduced the talent to 4 instead of 6, reduced the styling and equipment expenses, while making a few other additional tweaks, and submitted the following estimate:

Results: The photographer was awarded the project.

Pricing & Negotiating: Industrial Food Images

BY  Craig Oppenheimer, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Images of a food manufacturing facility

Licensing: Unlimited use of up to 10 images in perpetuity

Photographer: Industrial and Lifestyle Specialist

Agency: Medium in size, based in the Northeast

Client: Large Food Manufacturer

Here is the estimate:

Fees: The shoot was to take place over one day at a manufacturing facility, and they hoped to capture images of employees preparing various food products for distribution. The photographer specialized in this exact type of project, and he would be on his own to create content throughout the day based on a loose shot list, and without the oversight of agency/client attendees. While they requested unlimited use, their primary usage was for collateral purposes and marketing within the food industry. The photographer had previously shot for this client on a larger campaign during a rebranding effort, and this seemed to be a supplemental project to capture additional content, but with more limited intended usage. Based on the previous shoot, and with an understanding that the client had a rather limited bottom-line budget, we included a $9,500 creative/licensing fee. It happened to break down to less than $1,000 per image, which for the licensing duration felt a bit low but also felt in line for the limited intended placement. The photographer planned to scout the location beforehand, and we included $1,500 for the day to account for his time to do so.

Crew: We included an assistant who would accompany the photographer on the tech/scout day, as well as a digital tech for the shoot day. While the client/agency wouldn’t attend, there would be a potential need to remotely gain approvals over Zoom, so the tech would be beneficial to help facilitate that.

Equipment: We included the expense for the digital tech’s workstation, as well as the expense of the photographer’s cameras, lenses, grip, etc. as well.

Misc.: Just to add a little buffer for unforeseen expenses on the shoot day, we included $200.

Post Production: As a cost-savings measure, the agency opted to handle retouching in-house, however, we still included $750 to cover the photographer’s time to go through all of the content, provide a gallery for the agency to review, and then send over their 10 selects.

Results: The photographer was awarded the project. When we received the purchase order from the agency, we did have to negotiate a bit further on payment terms. They told us their standard terms were payment within 65 days, which felt far too long, and we were able to get them to agree to payment with net 30 terms.


Need help estimating or producing a project? Please reach out. We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs, from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.

Pricing & Negotiating: Social Media & Web Advertising Shoot For International Beer Brand

By  Bryan Sheffield, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Brand narrative shoot in an urban location with 2 talent enjoying the product

Licensing: Web Advertising and Web Collateral use of up to 10 images in perpetuity

Photographer: Lifestyle/Environmental Portrait photographer

Agency: National Social Media Agency

Client: International Beer Brand

Here is the estimate:

Fees: The photographer had previously worked with this agency. While they wanted to specifically work with this photographer on this project, we were given a strict budget of $4500 for the shoot. This was similar to previous budgets the photographer had seen from the agency. We discussed a shot list and creative with the agency and let them know that while we’d like to see a higher fee, we could work within their budget for the photographer fee for a limited qty of images, but that additional hard cost expenses would need to be covered. We understood this work would be used on the brand’s social media channels, and while we would have liked to see increased fees, we understand each project has set limits and the photographer was excited to work with this agency again for a new client.

Crew: We added a first assistant at $500/day, which was appropriate for the given market.

Equipment: We included $600 for simple cameras/lighting/grip and $200 for hard drives.

Travel: When we initially estimated this shoot we didn’t know the location, but understood it to be local to the photographer. We included $75 to cover mileage and parking to cover the scout, gear pickup, as well as shoot day travel.

Post Production: As the budget was limited, we waived the cost for a first edit and retouching, for up to 30 minutes per image for the 10 selects.

Additional Production Added:

Originally, the agency was going to handle all locations, talent, wardrobe, and hair/makeup styling. About 2 weeks out from the shoot the agency asked us to put an estimate together to handle locations and casting/talent. At this point we already had a signed estimate for the shoot, so we created a second estimate to encompass the pre-production support items requested.

Fees: We included 3 Producer Days to work on the locations and talent search coordination. This fee would be for the photographer and/or producer to scout and book the locations, coordinate casting, as well as collect invoices, and facilitate payments. We estimated this could take 3 full days.

Locations: The client was seeking a high-end urban home (ideally) with city skyline views, as well as landscape views. We estimated location fees of $3,500, plus possibly $1,000 in permits. We added a TBD to this cost in speaking with the agency about the possibility of spending more if there was a location we found that the client loved. We also added 3 days for an additional location scout to assist the producer in the search. That person would also be our on-site property liaison during our shoot.

Casting and Talent: We estimated $4,000 for two talents based on casting from smaller agencies and friends and family. The fee would include the talent’s shoot fee, usage rate, and potential agency fees. We added $1500 for casting as a fee for the producer, to handle the casting. We noted to the agency and client that while the photography license would be in perpetuity, it would be beyond our budget to obtain perpetual use rights from talent. Talent use agreements would be Unlimited use for 1 year, with a note that the work could exist in archive form on the internet.  All talent agreements and payments would be made directly by the agency.

Travel: $225 was estimated for mileage and parking (as well as a cup of coffee or two) for the producer and assistants to scout any potential locations.

Results: The photographer was awarded both the shoot and the pre-production support on the project! About a week before the shoot the agency sent us an agreement that was un-signable. The agreement sent our way stated this was to be a Work Made for Hire with full copyright transfer, no advance, and payments to be net-45… among other restrictive items that needed adjustment. We pushed back on the agreement and after a few days were successful in negotiating this project back to our proposed license terms, with a 50% advance (on both shoot and pre-pro support work), and a net-30 final payment, or upon first use of work as the photography license would not be conveyed until payment was made in full.

The shoot happened and was very successful! The agency and client had attendees on set and loved all the work. Upon delivery of the content, the client ended up licensing an additional 4 images at $500 per image, as well as expanding the license of an image for one year in-store POP for $2,000. The photographer was very happy with the work we put in to increase their fees, negotiate terms, and of course protect their copyright through this process.

Need help estimating or producing a project? Please reach out. We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs, from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.

Pricing & Negotiating: Social Media Shoot For International Beverage Brand

By Bryan Sheffield, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Environmental 15-second video portraits of talent interacting with products and the environment. Videos needed to be vertical in format, and created on iPhone 12.

Licensing: Web advertising use of up to two 15-second videos on TikTok for three months, and web collateral use in perpetuity.

Photographer: Lifestyle/portraiture specialist with motion capabilities

Client: International beverage brand

Here is the estimate:

Fees: This shoot was a part of a larger motion project being simultaneously produced by a video production company. The production company’s charge was to find a lifestyle photographer to create two 15-second environmental portrait videos of up to 3 talent directed into action. While the content creation seemed rather straightforward, the client was smart to seek a photographer with a strong portfolio of lighting and a proficiency of directing talent into joyful emotion, as well as capturing people in motion within a frame. Another need from the photographer was the ability to capture strong content in a very short amount of time due to the talent’s limited availability. On paper, the assets could be captured quickly, but the larger ongoing production and talent schedule meant we needed to estimate for two 12-hour shoot days to mirror the video production schedule. These combined needs put upward pressure on the fee. For the licensing, the client requested 3 months Paid Social Media Advertising. I felt $12,000 would be appropriate for one year of usage for this client, and then we subtracted 50% for a shorter duration. This brought us to $6,000, which we further lowered a bit to $5,500 after learning about a very tight budget. We also added a $500 fee for the photographer pre-pro work on the shoot direction and social media platform research.

Crew: We added a first assistant to help with lighting and the ease of the photographer’s days. These rates were appropriate for an advertising production in the given market. The production company required the estimate account for a 12-hour day, so 2 hours of overtime were estimated for each day at a 1.5x hourly rate.

Equipment: We included $1,000 for cameras, grip, and lighting rentals. Without knowing the specific location, we knew the photographer would need some LED and HMI lighting, modifiers and support. The specified camera, an iPhone 12, wouldn’t be able to support different exposure adjustments in aperture and ISO speed, so advance lighting tests were needed. The iPhone was brand new and provided in advance by the production company for the photographer to do some imaging and lighting tests prior to the shoot.

Miscellaneous: We had $250 as miscellaneous expenses. This would cover mileage and parking for the photographer and assistant, as well as any additional snacks/beverages before or after their time on set each day, and provide a bit of buffer for any unforeseen expenses that might arise.

Client Provisions: We included a Client Provisions note that all locations, product and product styling, all talent, wardrobe and wardrobe styling, hair, makeup, catering and craft services, Covid safety protocols, as well as all post-production, would be handled by the production company.

Results: The photographer was awarded the project, and the shoot was a success!

Have questions? Need help estimating or producing a project? Please reach out.
We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs, from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.

Pricing & Negotiating: Headshots For A Law Firm

By Craig Oppenheimer, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Headshots and environmental portraits of law firm partners

Licensing: Unlimited use of up to 20 images for 5 years

Photographer: Portraiture specialist in the Southeast

Client: Law Firm

Here is the estimate:

Fees: The client initially presented a project scope resembling a corporate lifestyle production with a seemingly endless shot list and a request for a one-day shoot (for what looked like a two-day shoot at a minimum). We had a discussion with the client, letting them know what we felt was feasible in a single day, and we were able to put a tighter box around the scope by just including portraits of their four main employees/partners in and around their office. It was at this time I asked about their budget, and we were told they had $10,000 to spend. This wasn’t a surprising budget, but I knew it would be a challenge to include appropriate fees/expenses across the board while capping the bottom line.

They had initially wanted 50 images, but given the budget, we limited that to 20 images and included a $6,000 fee, which happened to break down to $300/image. It felt light given the usage, but the straightforward nature of the newly defined project scope put downward pressure on the fee. Also, given all of the factors, the photographer was pleased with this amount. In addition to the creative/licensing fee, we also included $500 for a tech/scout day, so the photographer could see the location ahead of time and talk through logistics and creative approach with the client.

Crew: I included a first assistant to attend both the tech/scout day and the shoot day. I also included a digital tech who would double as a second assistant on the shoot day.

Equipment: This covered the photographer’s own equipment, and while I would have liked to charge more for the camera/lighting/grip he’d be bringing, we kept this expense to a minimum, given the budget.

Misc: I included $100 for any unforeseen expenses.

Postproduction: I included $300 for the photographer to provide the client a gallery of content to choose from, and then $100 per image to cover retouching for each of the 20 selects.

Feedback: The client demanded that they needed usage in perpetuity rather than be limited to five years. Typically, we would have gone back to them with an increased fee to accommodate that, but they essentially let us know it would be a deal breaker to increase the budget. The photographer was begrudgingly willing to simply include the perpetual usage to seal the deal.

Results: The photographer was awarded the project.


Have questions? Need help estimating or producing a project? Please reach out.

We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs, from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.

Pricing & Negotiating: Lifestyle Photo/Video Shoot For A Hospitality Brand

By  Bryan Sheffield, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Environmental Lifestyle & Architecture images featuring hired talent using client space(s)

Licensing: Unlimited use, excluding broadcast, of all images captured for three years from first use

Photographer: Lifestyle & Architecture specialist

Client: Mid-sized Regional Hospitality Brand

Here’s the initial estimate:

 

 

Fees: The agency contacted the photographer to put together an estimate for a three-day shoot featuring talent interacting at the client’s property to showcase the location’s uniqueness, amenities, and aesthetics. The agency provided us preliminary scouting images and a creative brief and wanted to see an estimate for both stills and video, as well as robust production to include talent and styling.

Deliverables initially included up to 20 final still images and a two-minute video edit. The client had requested unlimited use excluding broadcast. We priced each image around $500, plus $8,000 for a director fee and video usage, based on the client’s intended use of the content — primarily on client web and social media platforms — and possible regional advertising. While we would’ve liked the fees to be higher, the client didn’t have a media buy plan and we got some pushback from the agency on higher creative/licensing fee rates within their budget guidelines.

Crew: Given the nature of the project, I included a producer as well as a production coordinator to help schedule the days and hire/manage the rest of the crew and styling team. We added a skilled camera operator/Director of Photography along with a first assistant for stills, a gaffer for the motion team, and a second assistant to swing. Both the DP and first assistant would accompany the photographer on the tech/scout to help inform the lighting and equipment needs within each location. We added a digital tech/media manager to handle the files on set. These rates were appropriate for the given market; the digital tech’s day rate included a $700 fee plus an additional $650/day for their workstation.

Equipment: We included $7,500 for cameras/grip/lighting, $700 for hard drives, and a modest fee to cover production needs like tables, chairs, steamer, wardrobe racks, etc.

Casting & Talent: We included $2,000+20% per talent for up to 15 people to be used over the three shoot days. We also added a $2,400 casting fee for the director and producer to take on the casting, which was to be a mix of friends/family and professional talent.

Styling: We included a hair/makeup stylist plus an assistant, a wardrobe stylist plus an assistant, a prop stylist (who would also attend the scout) plus an assistant, and appropriate wardrobe costs based on the talent, scenes, and creative direction with a TBD caveat pending final creative plans.

Meals: We estimated $5,610 for catering and craft services based on $85 per person, per day.

COVID Safety: We included three days for a COVID compliance officer, plus a PPE budget advised by the CCO. Our CCO would arrive each shoot day with a screening questionnaire, check everyone’s temperature each morning, and monitor the set throughout the day with cleaning and guidance for craft services and meal breaks. We would have all crew/talent/agency PCR Covid tested before the shoot days and included $130/test x 27 anticipated people as the cost for doing this.

Misc.: We included insurance costs for the director to cover their premium — pending any additional client insurance requirements — as well as a line item to help offset parking, possible additional meals/craft, and any other small needs that would arise during the week.

Post Production: We included $1,000 for the photographer to perform a basic cull, curves/color correction, and provide a gallery of their selects. Simple retouching for up to 20 images was estimated at one hour per image, with a TBD as a caveat, to be based on final agency creative notes. The photographer would be doing all retouching at a $125/hr. rate. Video editing was estimated at $3,500, with a “TBD” added that this would be pending final client/agency creative notes and revisions.

Feedback & Revisions: As we’ve seen more and more lately, when the initial RFP (request for proposal) came to us, the agency had not yet sold the project to the client. This estimate was being used alongside the agency creative to have the client sign off on the project. This isn’t ideal, as we’ve seen photographers jump through hoops just for a project to never get off the ground. With that said, as the client conversations continued, there were quite a few adjustments to the creative plans and costs and, as a result, our estimate was revised a number of times over several months.

As the shot list grew, the on-set days increased to four and the talent needs expanded to hired professionals — though a decreased quantity. With a casting agent present, we added additional crew to our motion team, a drone operator for two days, and a props/set decorating team to help style the location. The post-production fees expanded to cover the additional images, video editing time, and an agency request for a colorist and audio licensing to be added.

While the shoot would be rather straightforward, the ten-hour shoot days would be stuffed and required a competent team with a concise plan. As stated previously, there was some pushback on our initial creative/licensing fee, but we landed not too far off and felt that a creative/licensing fee of $22,000 was fair. We previously had a fee for the director to attend a tech/scout day on the location, but with the increased SOW (statement of work), I added an additional $1,100/day fee for a few days of pre-production needs.

Our updated estimate still had the same tenets as the original, but the new needs increased the budget by more than $50,000 to the subsequent estimate below:

 

 

Results: The photographer was awarded the assignment, and the shoot is currently in post-production. It was a very successful project and the client and agency are very happy with the work created!

If you have any questions, or if you need help estimating or producing a project, please reach out. We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs—from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.

Pricing & Negotiating: Celebrity Shoot For Alcohol Company

Concept: Environmental portraits of a celebrity

Licensing: Unlimited use of all images captured for two years from first use

Photographer: Portraiture specialist

Client: Large alcohol brand

Here is the estimate (click to enlarge):

 

Fees: While the portraits would be rather straightforward, the celebrity talent required a photographer who had experience working with high-profile subjects and — due to said talent’s busy schedule — the ability to capture strong content in a short amount of time. That put upward pressure on the fee, and I felt that a creative fee alone was worth $4,000.

For the licensing, even though the client requested unlimited use, they were most likely to place the content in regional advertisements — primarily on in-store displays. I felt $6,500 was appropriate for one year of usage, then added 50% to account for a second year, bringing me to $9,750. I arrived at a $13,750 fee by combining the $4,000 creative fee and the $9,750 licensing fee. On top of that, I added a $1,500 fee for the photographer to attend a tech/scout day on location.

Crew: Given the nature of the project, I included a producer and PA to help coordinate the day and help hire/manage the rest of the crew and styling team. We added a first assistant (who would also accompany the photographer on the tech/scout day), second assistant, and a digital tech as well. The digitech’s rate included a $500 fee and $1,000 for a workstation and, overall, the rates were appropriate for the given market.

Styling: We included a hair/makeup stylist and a wardrobe stylist, as requested by the client. The wardrobe stylist would just be preparing clothing provided by the talent, so no shopping/return days were needed.

Equipment: We included $1,500 for cameras/grip/lighting and a modest fee to cover production elements like tables, chairs, etc.

Health and Safety: We included two days for a COVID compliance officer (which covered the tech/scout day and the shoot day), plus a few hundred dollars for PPE.

Meals: This rate was $75 per person on the day of the shoot.

Misc.: The venue was a bit out of town, so this fee covered mileage, parking, some additional meals, and bit of overhead for any unforeseen expenses that might arise.

Postproduction: We included $500 for the photographer to perform basic color correction and provide a gallery of his favorite shots. We also added $350 for a hard drive to deliver all of the images, as the client would handle retouching.

Results: The photographer was awarded the project, and the client ended up expanding the usage to include an additional year for one image for a fee of $3,750.

If you have any questions — or if you need help estimating or producing a project — please reach out. We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs, from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.

Pricing & Negotiating: Human Interest Video For A Restaurant

By Craig Oppenheimer, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Testimonial video of a real customer and employees

Licensing: Internal and Web Collateral use of all content captured in perpetuity

Director: Lifestyle and hospitality specialist

Client: Large restaurant chain

Here’s the estimate (click to enlarge):

Pricing & Negotiating: Pharmaceutical Product Shoot

Craig Oppenheimer, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Lifestyle content of a patient using a medical device and interacting with their caregiver

Licensing: Trade Advertising and Collateral use of up to 6 images for 2 years from first use.

Photographer: Lifestyle and portraiture specialist

Agency: Medium in size, based in the Northeast

Client: Pharmaceutical company

Here is the estimate:

Pricing and Negotiating first estimate for a Pharmaceutical company production

Creative/Licensing Fees: The agency was in need of images showing a medical product being used, along with images of a patient interacting with their caregiver and family within multiple scenarios taking place in and around a house, as well as a few outdoor scenarios as well. The exact shots were a bit TBD at the time of estimating, but we did know they wanted to end up with six final images, and they’d be used for trade advertising and collateral purposes for two years. Based on recent similar productions and a knowledge of previously palatable fees/expenses for this client, we landed on a creative/licensing fee of $7,500. It broke down to $1,250/image, which we felt was reasonable for the intended use and the given variables.

Crew: We included adequate prep, scout, shoot and wrap days for a producer to help coordinate the production, and included two assistants, one of which would also attend the scout day. Additionally we included a digital tech on the shoot day and a PA to help with prep/shoot/wrap as well.

Styling: We would only be capturing one main hero talent, and three others, and we were confident that one hair/makeup stylist could handle that without an assistant. In an effort to reduce people on set, we combined the roles of wardrobe stylist and prop stylist, and included adequate shopping time in addition to the shoot and time to return the items procured, while providing them with two assistants to lend a hand. We included $500 per talent for wardrobe, and $2,250 for props, however we marked that as TBD since the shot list was still under development and the final scenarios would dictate the exact prop needs/costs. We also included $500 for stylist kit fees, shipping and misc. expenses.

Health and Safety: I’ve started to break out all things related specifically to COVID protocols and prevention into a new category when estimating projects, and here I added 2 days for our CCO, as she’d join us on the tech/scout and the shoot day, and $300 to cover PPE and supplies. I’ve found that $300-$500 is an appropriate amount for PPE and cleaning supplies for a shoot this size.

Casting and Talent: We had to find one main adult hero talent to portray a patient, a secondary adult talent to portray their caregiver, and two children to portray grandchildren. The casting agent we worked with would hold virtual casting sessions remotely, rather than have talent attend an in-person casting session, and I knew this price would cover their time for at least 2 days work of casting to help find the talent we needed. I included $1,800/day, which was appropriate for this particular market based on the usage.

Locations: Since the shot list was still a work in progress, it was a bit of a challenge to estimate location scouting and location fees, but I felt confident that we had enough time/money built in to handle the anticipated request of finding a residential property and a couple nearby outdoor locations. We also included $1,000 for location cleaning to address the anticipated concerns from the homeowners regarding COVID.

Vehicles: In order to try and keep the bottom line down, I marked a production RV as TBD, as there was a chance we could use the house and the exterior locations as a staging area, rather than an RV. I also added modest funds for van rentals to help with equipment and supplies.

Equipment: I included $1,000 for the photographer’s gear, $750 for the digital tech’s workstation, and $500 for production supplies such as tables, chairs, tents, heaters, etc.

Meals: I included $75 per person for breakfast and lunch

Misc.: To address potential mileage, additional meals and miscellaneous expenses that might arise, I added $500. I also included $300 for insurance.

Post Production: I included $500 for the photographer’s time to go through the images and make initial edits and provide a gallery of content to the client, and then $200/image for 6 images to handle the retouching.

Feedback: The numbers were well received, however we were informed that they wanted to add a video component to the project. They weren’t sure exactly what would need to be captured, but they asked for a quote and told us they had an extra $15k budgeted for it.

Here is the quote we provided:

Pricing and Negotiating first estimate for a Pharmaceutical company production

Crew: We got a quote from a local team and consolidated their numbers into this bid. We anticipated bringing on a DP, along with one or two assistants.

Casting and Talent: We increased the talent fees by an extra $500+20% to account for the video usage.

Vehicles: Now that we had extra crew with the video team and a padded budget, I took the opportunity to add the production RV into the estimate as I felt it would be necessary.

Equipment: This covered the minimal gear rented from the videographer.

Meals: We added a small amount to include extra meals for the additional crew.

Misc.: I added $800 to cover miscellaneous expenses that might arise.

Overtime: Now that we planned to shoot video, I felt that the time necessary to do so would cause us to go past a 10-hour shoot day, so I included an extra hour for everyone involved with the production, billed at time and a half.

Results: The photographer was awarded the job.

 

If you have any questions, or if you need help estimating or producing a project, please give us a call at 610.260.0200 or reach out. We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs—from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.

Pricing & Negotiating: Last Minute Automotive/Portraiture Assignment

Craig Oppenheimer, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Portraits of a community leader posing with a vehicle

Licensing: One-time Print Advertising use of one image in a single publication, as well as Web Collateral use for 6 months.

Photographer: Portraiture and lifestyle specialist

Agency: Medium in size, based in the Northeast

Client: Large automotive brand

Here is the estimate:

Redacted estimate for an automotive/portrait shoot

Fees: The agency reached out about a shoot that was to take place within a few days of the initial correspondence and needed the project to be pulled together quickly. The project revolved around a major sporting event taking place elsewhere, and the creative assets to be generated at that event were driving the creative approach and the timeline for this project. The scope was relatively simple, and they needed portraits of a person who was heavily involved in their local community photographed in front of a vehicle. The subjects and vehicle would be provided, no styling was needed, the client/agency did not plan to attend, nor would they need remote approval as the shoot unfolded. Those factors made the project very straightforward. For usage, we were told that they only needed one final image, and the licensing would be very limited and include placement one-time in a single publication, and the image would live online for 6 months. Given the straightforward nature of the project and limited licensing, I decided to include $3,500 as a creative/licensing fee. Additionally, I included $500 as a fee for the photographer to go scout the provided location ahead of time.

Crew: I included two assistants for the shoot day, based on local rates

Equipment: This was to be shot in an editorial style without any major lighting setups, and I included $800 to cover the photographer’s own camera, lenses, lighting, and grip.

Health and Safety: On most shoots these days, I’m typically including fees and expenses for a COVID Compliance Office to be on set to ensure that everyone is complying with COVID prevention protocols. In this case, considering the very limited amount of people on-site, the lack of items/areas that would need continuous cleaning, and the fact that they’d be outside the entire time, we decided to omit a compliance officer.

Misc.: While we anticipated the shoot would only take about a half day to accomplish, I included a few hundred dollars to cover a quick meal, mileage, and a bit of extra money for unforeseen items.

Post Production: I included $500 for the photographer’s time to batch process all of the images and provide a web gallery for the client to review. I added $300 to cover the retouching of one image and noted that this included up to 2 hours of retouching time.

Results: The photographer was awarded the project.

If you have any questions, or if you need help estimating or producing a project, please give us a call at 610.260.0200 or reach out. We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs

Pricing & Negotiating: Combining Food Still Life Projects

Shoot Concept: Lifestyle images of professional talent and still life shots of plated food.

Licensing: North American Advertising (excluding Out of Home) and Collateral use of 5 images for 1 year.

Location:  A residential property

Shoot Days: 2

Photographer: Portrait and lifestyle specialist

Agency: Mid-sized, based in the Southwest

Client: A well-known food company

Here is the estimate (click to enlarge):

 

 

Concept/Licensing:           

The agency provided a detailed spec sheet featuring two images of adults and children interacting and three images of plated food. Based on the layouts and my discussion with the production manager, it was apparent that the two lifestyle shots would be used in magazine ads and in-store marketing materials, while the three still life images would be used only for the website and in-store marketing materials. I also learned that, while they were requesting a licensing duration of one year, the images would likely be promoting seasonal products, and would therefore have a lifespan of just a few months.

I decided to price both lifestyle images at their full value (rather than discounting the second image) because they would be promoting two different types of products, and after weighing the factors, their full value was $7,500 each. The three supplemental still life images were much different than the lifestyle shots, but were quite similar when compared to each other. For this reason, I decided to price the first still life image at $5,000 (2/3 the price of a lifestyle image) and the other two at $3,750 each (1/2 the price of a lifestyle image).

After coming up with these fees, I checked a few other pricing resources to see what they recommended. Blinkbid priced one image between $7,000-$10,000 for one year use in print publications and collateral. Getty priced one image around $6,000 for North American advertising use in magazines and about $4,000 for point of sale use for one year. Combined, $10,000 would have been an appropriate starting point for the full value of a single image for a prominent client like this, but this didn’t take into account the short lifespan of the images. Corbis suggested $12,500 for one image for one year within their “Print Ad, Web, and Indoor Display” flexible use pack, while FotoQuote priced similar usage at $14,000. However, these fees included a bit more than the intended use I discussed with the agency.

Assistants: The photographer would be traveling for this shoot, and I anticipated that the he would bring his first assistant while hiring a local second assistant for the two shoot days. I included five days for the first assistant to account for two travel days, two shoot days and one prep day on location.

Digital Tech: The digital tech would help to manage the flow of file intake and display for client approval on set. I included $500 for the digital tech, and then added on $750 for their workstation for each shoot day.

Producer: A project like this required a producer to help wrangle and hire the crew, coordinate casting and location scouting, make travel and catering arrangements and work closely with the photographer and agency to compile a detailed schedule and production book. The producer would also travel to the shoot and be on set to manage the crew, schedule, and handle the invoicing process after the shoot.

Photographer Travel/Scout/Fitting Days: This took into account two days for the photographer to travel there and back, and a third day to scout the location and participate in a fitting day where the models would try on the clothing and the agency/client would make wardrobe decisions prior to the shoot.

Hair/Makeup Stylist: We’d be photographing four talent and capturing one lifestyle scenario per day. I anticipated that we’d have plenty of prep time for these shots each day, which would only require one hair/makeup stylist (as opposed to an additional hair/makeup stylist assistant) on each day.

Wardrobe Stylist and Wardrobe: I grouped the stylist and the assistant into a single line, and anticipated paying the stylist $800/day and their assistant $300/day. The four days accounted for the time it would take them to shop, attend the fitting day, be present at the shoot and return the clothing. The wardrobe costs were based on the need to have two final outfit choices for each of the four talent, and I estimated $200 per outfit. The wardrobe stylist would of course purchase many different options, but this budget accounted for the wardrobe that would be non-returnable.

Prop Stylist: During a call with the agency, they made it clear that the mix of still life and lifestyle images would call for a wide range of very specific seasonal props…and we’d need to find these items off-season. At $700/day for the stylist and $300/day for their assistant, I anticipated that they would need two days to shop/prep and a day to return props on top of the shoot days.

Props: In addition to the specific prop list that we were provided, we’d be shooting at a residential property, so I accounted for a few additional home/garden props to spruce up the interior and exterior. Also, the still life images would need a wide range of tabletop props such as plates, bowls and napkins, and $1,500/day would be appropriate after discussing our needs with a few prop stylists.

Food Stylist and Food/Supplies: We’d only be photographing food on one of the shoot days. I included a half-day for the stylist to shop for ingredients and a full day for them to cook and prepare for the shoot day. I typically don’t estimate half-days for crew members, but the ingredients needed were quite simple and I couldn’t justify the need for a stylist to spend an entire day shopping. However, the food that the stylist would need to bring to the shoot would in fact require a full day to prepare. In addition, many of the ingredients would be shipped to the food stylist from the client, and our food/supplies budget would therefore be minimal.

Location Scout and Location Fee: Based on the comps, layouts and discussions with the agency, I knew they would be very picky when choosing a location. Sometimes a location scout will charge a fee to “pull” from their files and deliver a gallery of locations they’ve already photographed. If needed, many scouts charge a fee of about $650 plus expenses to go out and scout new locations. Since I didn’t know which scout I was going to use yet, I included three days for a scout to find us the perfect residential property, and figured that one of those “days” might be dedicated to pay for their “file pull”.  Based on estimates from previous projects, I felt confident that $2,000/day would be appropriate for they kind of property we were looking for.

Casting Day: I planned on hiring a casting agent to help us find talent, and this covered their time, shooting space and booking of the talent.

Adult and Child Talent: We’d need two adults and two children on both shoot days. Typically I’d include backup children if they are young enough to potentially have a meltdown on set, but I didn’t’ feel that we’d have this issue with kids in the 8-10 age range. After speaking with a few casting and talent agencies in the city we’d be shooting in, I determined $2,000 per talent per day plus a 20% agency fee would be appropriate for the adults. For the children, I felt that $1,000 per talent per day plus 20% would attract a decent pool of options. In addition to the shoot days, we’d also need each talent to come to a fitting day before the shoot, and I felt that $1,000 would be an appropriate compensation for this.

Fit Day Location Fee: We would need a location for our fit day, and we could have approached this a few different ways. A photo studio would have worked, but it might have offered more than what we needed. Another idea was to pay for a conference room in a nearby hotel, or even rent a large room in a hotel at a convenient location. After making a few calls, I determined $800 would be more than enough to cover either a high-end spacious suite or a conference room.

Airfare, Lodging, Car Rental: I used Kayak.com to determine that it would be about $400 per person (including baggage fees) for the photographer, first assistant and producer to fly to/from the location, and that $200/night for 4 nights would afford decent hotel rooms for each person. I also used Kayak.com to find pricing for a minivan rental for the duration of the trip.

Production RV:  With a crew this large on location, an RV would allow the producer to keep as many “cooks out of the kitchen” as possible, while also providing a staging area, bathrooms, WIFI and an area for catering outside of the residential property. I confirmed with a local RV company that $1,500/day would afford us a nice vehicle including a driver, fuel, cleaning/dumping fees and mileage.

Catering: I anticipated $40 per person per day for light breakfast and lunch.

Equipment: After speaking with the photographer about his equipment needs, we determined that $900/day would be appropriate for the gear he was bringing and renting. This included a camera body and a few lenses (~$400), power packs and heads (~$300) plus miscellaneous modifiers, reflectors and grip equipment (~$200).

Image Processing for Editing: This covered the time, equipment and costs to handle the basic color correction, edit and upload of all of the images to an FTP for client review.

Retouching: The photographer and I determined that each of the 5 images could take up to 4 hours to retouch, and $150/hr would allow us to farm out the work to a retoucher if the photographer became unavailable.

Miles, Parking, FTP, Misc: This was to cover any additional minor miscellaneous expenses during the shoot days and while traveling.

Feedback: The agency told us that our numbers were in line, but that they’d be unable to issue the photographer an advance prior to the shoot, and they also wanted the talent to bill the photographer (rather than billing the agency directly). In addition, after reviewing our terms/conditions, they asked us to remove the clause detailing that if they don’t pay the photographer within 30 days of the final invoice, that they will be billed a $20.00/month handling fee and 1.5%/month interest.

This feedback raised some pretty serious red flags. This basically meant that the photographer would have to front approximately $38,000 out of pocket to cover the production expenses without a contractual guarantee for reimbursement or payment of the final balance.

Results: The photographer was awarded the project (and he accepted it despite the financial risk), and I produced the shoot.  The client did pay within 30 days.

In addition, the client decided to add on two product still life shots and one additional food shot to the project. While we were able to accommodate their requests within the estimated shooting time, we charged them an additional $5,000 for the first unique still life image, $2,500 for the second similar still life image, and $2,000 for the additional food image plus expenses for the stylists and retouching time. We originally quoted $2,500 for the fourth food image, but they asked if we could work with them and come down to $2,000, which we did. A few months after the shoot, we were already in discussions about extending the licensing duration.

Hindsight:

Our terms and conditions document states that “the expenses are estimated in good faith” and “actual expenses, which may be greater or less, will be invoiced”. We didn’t have any issues with overages (in fact, I was able to produce the shoot and come in about $11,000 under budget), but I did find out that our proposal was treated as a bid, rather than an estimate.

In a bid scenario, a photographer provides an invoice for the bottom line of their estimate, rather than providing receipts and billing for fees and actual expenses. If they come in under budget, the balance goes into their pocket. However, in many cases, if the expenses go over the estimated costs, the photographer is not granted an overage and they have to absorb the additional costs. This brings up the issue of including markups in estimates. We feel that billing for actual time and expenses is the most honest way of doing business (and most of the purchase orders we receive require that copies of receipts be provided with an invoice), but there are times when a client specifically asks for a bid, and in those cases we may estimate on the higher end just to cover potential overages.

You can find all of our Pricing & Negotiating articles here. If you’d like to hear more about our Pricing and Negotiating or other consulting services, please send us an email or give us a call at 1 610 260 0200!

Pricing & Negotiating: Real Families for a Technology Client

Craig Oppenheimer, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Lifestyle images of real families interacting with technology

Licensing: Unlimited use of up to 60 images for two years from first use

Photographer: Reportage and Portrait Specialist

Agency: Large, specializing in digital campaigns

Client: Large technology company

 

Here is the estimate:
Pricing and Negotiating Real Families for Technology Client

Creative/Licensing Fees: The photographer came to me having never done a commercial assignment with an ad agency or a client of this size before. His previous work focused on family portraits and reportage, and that was exactly the kind of content this campaign called for. The agency hoped that the photographer could present options of real families to them using his personal connections, rather than working with a casting director or talent agency. These families would be photographed in their actual homes interacting in staged setups, that would ideally look as authentic as possible considering they were real family members. The shoot would take place over two shoot days, with two families, each in their own homes. While the shot list was a bit of a collaborative effort, we settled on 60 final deliverables for unlimited use for two years. Based on previous similar projects I’ve estimated, I had a sense that this client would want to end up paying a few hundred dollars per image if broken down that way, and likely around 10-15k/day for a creative/licensing fee. We were asked to break out the creative fee from the licensing, and I landed on $3,000/day plus $20,000 in licensing fees. There would also be two pre-pro days added in, which I included $1,500/day for. As we approached $30,000 for these items collectively, I felt confident that we were in the right ballpark, especially considering this would be the photographer’s first assignment like this.

Crew: I included a first assistant and a digital tech, each for the two shoot days

Styling: The families would wear their own clothes, so we didn’t need a wardrobe stylist, but there was definitely a need for specific props based on the creative brief and the situations being prescribed by the shot list. I therefore included a prop stylist with an assistant and the appropriate expenses, but marked the prop costs as TBD since we were still sorting out the exact prop needs.

Casting and Talent: Based on previous projects we decided that $3,000 per family would be appropriate to cover each family and their property.

Equipment: While we initially started much lower due to the photographer’s style and lighting approach, the agency specifically asked us to include $3,500/day for equipment.

Health and Safety:  On all shoots now, we are considering PPE and cleaning supplies at a minimum, and on some shoots we include a health/wellness officer. In this case, since we were still sorting out the exact families and their comfort level with a minimal production, we marked this at $1,000 while bidding. At most, we anticipated hiring a cleaning company to come clean the location after the shoot.

Misc.: I included $250/day for each day to cover miscellaneious and unforeseen expenses that might arise.

Post Production: I included $1,500 for what I anticipate would likely be about a day of post, just to organize the assets and delivery them, even though the agency would be handling the heavy lifting on the retouching.

Feedback: The first item the agency wanted to discuss was the licensing. Rather than select 60 images after the shoot and have the usage period start when the first image was used, they wanted to be able to make selects over the course of the two year licensing period, and have each image start a two year licensing period when each image was used. It seemed odd to me, but regardless, I wanted to account for the potential lengthier usage term that would be possible, and the work that the photographer would have to do each time more files were requested throughout the two years. I had a very frank conversation with the art buyer about this request, and they suggested that they had $15,000 potentially available to put towards this licensing request. That seemed like an excellent deal, so we ran with it and adjust our estimate. Additionally, we learned that the production company involved with this project planned to pay the crew, styling team and talent directly via a payroll company, and that they’d handle any cleaning fees directly as well. They therefor asked us to revise our estimate to reflect that.

Here was the final estimate:
Pricing and Negotiating Real Families for Technology Client

Results: The photographer was awarded the project.

Hindsight: Given the extra $15k that magically appeared, I wonder if we started too low initially. Also, it seems many shoots in these strange Covid times revolve more around the resources that a photographer has available to them (family/friend talent and locations specifically) as opposed to the actual appropriateness of that photographer for the assignment, which is a bit disconcerting. I think the photographer was a great choice for this campaign, but I’ve seen other projects where seemingly perfect photographers drop out of the running because they don’t have that perfect talent/location at their fingertips.

 

If you have any questions, or if you need help estimating or producing a project, please give us a call at 610.260.0200 or reach out. We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs—from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.

Pricing & Negotiating: A Large Production Cancelled by Covid-19

Craig Oppenheimer, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Stills and video content featuring seven athletes participating in various sports, as well as images of each athlete posed with product.

Licensing: Unlimited use of all images captured for 2 months from first use.

Photographer: Sports and portraiture specialist

Agency: Canadian office of large international group

Client: Large telecommunications company

Here is the estimate:

Creative/Licensing Fees: The scope of the project included stills and video to capture seven athletes participating in five unique sports over four shoot days in two different cities. Each athlete had unique needs in terms of gyms/facilities where they would need to be captured, and the need for posed shots on white led to some unique scouting and location needs. Some of them could entirely be captured in a studio, and others were a combination of them at a facility where a seamless background would be set up.

The creative needs called for a specialist who was technically savvy and could photograph/direct athletes who had limited time. These needs, along with the large agency/client, put upward pressure on a creative fee (which they asked us to break out from a licensing fee, as opposed to combining the two numbers), and we landed on $5,000/day for each of the four shoot days. While the high exposure and request for all images captured put upward pressure on the licensing fee, we knew that they had hoped to get about 30 total images, and would likely use just two for each athlete. Additionally, while they asked for unlimited use, the duration was very limited with a request for just two months. With those factors in mind, and based on previous experience, I thought that around $3,000 per subject or less than $1,000 per image for 30 shots would likely be appropriate. We initially settled on $19,500 for a licensing fee, which broke down to $650/image for the 30 shots we had been discussing, and just under $1,400/image for the 14 shots they were likely to use (7 athletes X 2 shots each).

On top of the creative and licensing fees, we included two travel days and two tech scout days based on an itinerary we detailed in the job description.

Producer Day(s): While the talent would be provided and the styling would be minimal, this project had a ton of moving pieces, and the logistics required a seasoned producer to lend a hand. We included six prep days prior to the travel/tech/scout/shoot days plus a wrap day.

Production Assistant Day(s): We included 10 days, two of which would be prep days to lend a hand with whatever tasks arose, plus the travel and shoot days.

Assistant Day(s): We included four assistants in total, two of which would travel with the team to both locations, and the other two would be locals and just be needed on the individual shoot days. Given how fast the team would have to move, the multiple setups/scenarios that would be needed, and the equipment requirements, we needed a lot of hands-on deck.

Digital Tech Day(s): We’d hire a digital tech locally in each city, and this accounted for each of the four shoot days.

DP/Camera Operator Day(s): We included $3,500/day for each of the four shoot days, and $1,500 for two travel days. While the photographer would be capturing stills and directing the video, we felt it was important to have a separate person actually capturing and focusing on the video content.

Grip and Gaffer Day(s): To assist the DP/Camera Operator, we included a grip and a gaffer to help with equipment and electrical needs, hired locally for each shoot day.

Hair/Makeup and Wardrobe Stylist Day(s): The subjects would be providing their own wardrobe and would have minimal hair/makeup needs, so we just included a single hair/makeup stylist and a single wardrobe stylist, hired locally in each city, just for the shoot days without any prep/wrap time or expenses.

Location Fees: This was a big TBD, since we were told that that the athletes might be able to leverage relationships with various training facilities for scouting purposes, but we needed to account for the payment of those facilities in our budget. We ballparked some numbers here, and also added $2,000 for the day where we’d just rent a studio instead of shooting on location.

Equipment: We included $8k for both photography equipment and video equipment, based on $2,000/day for four shoot days.

Catering: We anticipated about 22 mouths to feed each day and included $90 per person to include breakfast, lunch, craft and additional meals to support a long day with overtime.

Travel Expenses: I based this on the schedule detailed in the job description and the number of people that would be traveling to each of the locations. The cities were within driving distance, which eliminated the need for airfare.

Parking, Expendables, Additional Meals, Misc: I included $1,500 here, truly as a buffer for unforeseen expenses that might arise throughout the production.

Insurance: A loose rule of thumb I use to calculate insurance is to base it on 2% of the expenses. In this case that was closer to $3k, but I wanted to come down a bit as it was feeling a bit excessive, so I included $2k.

Post Production: We included $2,000 to handle basic processing of 30 selects. The agency would handle most of the retouching, and this just included both color correction and file cleanup but would still take a decent amount of time to sift through the images and perform those tasks.

Overtime: On three out of the four shoot days, we anticipated 14-hour days rather than a typical 10-hour day. It’s customary to bill for crew at time and a half for up to 12 hours, and double time after 12 hours. So, in this case, we had two hours per day at time and a half, and two hours per day at double time, for three shoot days.

Once the photographer and I finished collaborating on these numbers, we looped in a local producer to further tweak the fees/expenses based on local knowledge and preferred logistical approaches. Overall, she bumped up the estimate by about $12k, bringing the bottom line just under $200k.

Results: The photographer was awarded the project…but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. This led to a lengthy process of uncertainty regarding how to tackle the project. Since the dates for each part of the project were spread out, they had discussed canceling some dates but just postponing others, and each day brought a new update on how it might shake out. Surprisingly, given the size of the agency, their purchase order didn’t detail any sort of cancellation policy, so we stuck to the cancellation policy in our terms/conditions. At the time when they asked us to formalize what a cancellation agreement might look like, we were a few days out from the first shoot date, with the next trip schedule just over a week away. They asked us to focus our cancellation fees/expenses on just these first two projects for now, hoping to just push the later shoots/dates. Here is what we came up with:

I noted that the out of pocket expenses would be billed at 100% and handed this off to the photographer’s producer to help detail what those exact expenses were, and she tackled it from that point on. Ultimately, they cancelled the entire project. The photographer was able to charge part of his creative fees, half of his licensing fees, and all out of pocket expenses based on how our terms/conditions were worded.

If you have any questions, or if you need help estimating or producing a project, please give us a call at 610.260.0200 or reach out. We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs—from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.

Pricing & Negotiating: Corporate Lifestyle Shoot for a Tech Company

Craig Oppenheimer, Wonderful Machine

Concept: Employees at work in an office space

Licensing: Web Advertising and Web Collateral use of up to six images for one year

Photographer: Portraiture and lifestyle specialist

Agency: Small, based on the West Coast

Client: Large technology company

Here is the estimate:

Initial quote of expenses for corporate lifestyle photoshoot.

Creative/Licensing Fees: The original project scope included corporate lifestyle images of six employees at work, and they hoped to license one shot of each employee for use on web ads and placement on their website for one year. Based on a conversation with the agency, I knew this would be a low-profile project for them and therefore have a tight budget. I started at $500/image, and while I wanted to add at least $2,000 as a creative fee, we decided to cut that in half and go with $4,000 as a combined creative/licensing fee.

Pre-Production/Scout Day: We included $1,000 to account for the photographer’s time to line up his crew and briefly visit the office to see the space beforehand.

Assistant: We included $500 for an experienced assistant to help lend a hand for the shoot day.

Hair/Makeup Stylist: $900 was an appropriate rate in this market for a stylist to make sure each subject was presentable and camera ready.

Equipment and Digital Workstation Rental: The photographer would have minimal equipment, and this accounted for his cameras, lenses, grip, lighting and a laptop for the client to review the images as they were being captured.

First Edit for Client Review: This accounted for the photographer’s time to do an initial edit and provide the client a web gallery of images to review, as well as delivery of six images by FTP.

Retouching: We were asked to detail a rate for retouching as an option, but not include it in the bottom line, so we noted a fee of $200/image should the client decide to outsource the post-production to the photographer.

Mileage, Parking, Misc.: This included a light lunch for the photographer and his two crew members, as well as some buffer funds for unforeseen expenses.

Feedback: A week later we were asked to revise the estimate and reduce the number of subjects from six to three while maintaining six shots (two per subject). Additionally, they requested perpetual use, rather than usage for just one year. I considered that perhaps the second shot per subject was less valuable than the first, but ultimately decided to base this new request on a per image fee of $1,500 each ($9,000 total). Prorated, the original $4,000 fee broke down to just over $650/image, so more than double this amount per image felt reasonable as a fee for perpetual use. While I might typically triple (at least) the price to go from one year to perpetual use, I felt that the shelf life of these images was just about a year or so as the subjects would primarily be working with technology in the images, which would quickly become out of date.

Here was the revised estimate:

Second estimate for corporate lifestyle shoot.

Feedback: We were told a few days later that the project scope was being tightened up to include just two subjects, and they wanted two images per subject. We were also told that they were hoping to keep everything under $10k. Based on $1,500/image, we included $6,000 as a creative/licensing fee. They also asked us to include basic post-processing for these images, and we added $150/image for the light retouching.

Here was the revised estimate:

Third revision of the estimate for the corporate lifestyle shoot.

Results: The photographer was awarded the project.

If you have any questions, or if you need help estimating or producing a project, please give us a call at 1 610 260 0200 or reach out. We’re available to help with any and all pricing and negotiating needs—from small stock sales to large ad campaigns.